Reliance gears up for e-commerce, Acquiring two more Startups

The richest man of Asia, Mukesh Ambani recently acquired startups in last-mile logistics, software while, it prepared to call out Amazon and Walmart-owned, Flipkart in India’s keyed up vying e-commerce market. Previous month, Reliance also acquired three startups. Business magnate, Mukesh Ambani now seems to grow and enhance a penchant for shaking hands with startups. Textile-to-telecom large, Reliance Industries has now enrolled into compliance in order to acquire two more startups that includes, ‘last mile logistics delivery service Grab A Grub’ and ‘software services firm C-Square Info Solutions’.

About a week ago, it stepped into certain agreements, to acquire three startups namely, language localisation technology platform Reverie Language Technologies, software-as-a-service startup Easygov and software simulation services company SankhyaSutra Labs, according to previous reports.The acquisitions proceed from Ambani’s plan to take up around $36 billion India’s e-commerce market, dominated by foreign rivals such as Amazon and Walmart. During an event in Gujarat, earlier in January this year, Ambani also announced his plans of launching an e-commerce venture that would pull up near 300 million Jio customers and 10,000 outlets of its retail arm in more than 6,500 cities.

Reliance, then also caught up stake in blockchain startup, Vakt Holdings in December 2018. In September, during the previous year, it supported artificial intelligence startup Netradyne and edtech startup Embibe, previously in early April. “Reliance has an ecosystem of entertainment, financial services, payment gateway, etc. Once it has customers hooked on to these services, then it is a question of time before it can start offering merchandise as well,” claimed Arvind Singhal, chairman and managing director at retail consultancy firm Technopak told Financial Express Online earlier.

Furthermore, Ambani also does not require to worry about long-term losses. Reliance Industries further, also reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 9,459 crore in the quarter ended June the past year. “Retail sector operates between 3-5% of profit and Reliance has been able to maintain that profit. Nobody would have thought that they would pull off something like Jio,” stated Naresh T. Raisinghani, CEO and Executive Director at India division of global consulting firm BMGI. The acquisition of Grab a Grub is possibly to lend a hand to Reliance with the last mile delivery challenges leaving out C-Square software solution and Reverie that approves of businesses to connect with their customers in local languages.

“The aforesaid investment will further augment the group’s digital commerce initiatives and strengthen its logistics services, catering to both B2B and B2C segments,” PTI quoted Reliance as marked. Reliance would further now, invest up to Rs 40 crore in Grab a Grub while its total investment will translate into 83 per cent of equity capital in the startup, Reliance stated in a report.